Part of our history has been written with idealism in mind, instead of being based on actual facts, said one of the most prominent Albanologists, and a scientific researcher at the University of Oxford, Noel Malcolm.
This is especially true when it comes to important personalities, whose characters were more nuanced than we like to have them appear, as was the case with Ali Pashe Tepelena, who the British historian has been particularly focused on during his research.
“I began reading documents that existed in English and French archives and there were so many of them, compared to the few that are known today in this field of study. It made me realize exactly how extraordinary, smart and talented this man actually was when it came to international relations. He dealt with Napoleon, with the English king, with the Secretary of Foreign Affairs in London and even with the Russians. He used to possess the skills of an extremely talented diplomat. He is a very interesting personality, who has been written about in many different languages, but who has unfortunately been idealized in many of them, which haven’t been particularly based on actual documents, and all of history absolutely needs to be based on true facts,” – said Malcolm.
The book ‘Rebels, Believers and Survivors’ is one of the works for which he was awarded the first prize of the Trinity of Albanology: Meyer-Pederson-Jokl, at the Academy of Science this end of November.
In and of itself, the work speaks about an interesting and almost forgotten detail about Albanians, which is the fact that they’ve held important leading roles pretty much everywhere they were at the time, said the historian.
“It is a book about two families during the 16th century, that begins in Ulcinj and after the Ottoman invasion, many of them went to a bay that is located in today’s Slovenia. By hunting them down through dozens of archives, I believe around 36, I was able to build on the lives of 5 to 6 of them, who had been otherwise previously unknown in Albania’s history. One of them was an Archbishop, the other an agent diplomat from Venice, one was an agent from Turkey working for the Spanish government and who later became a high-ranking minister in Moldavia. It might seem odd but Albanians were everywhere at the time, performing roles as agents, regulators and even as leading executives,” – said Malcom.
The most interesting piece of evidence that the British historian says he has come across, out of the 36 or more archives he has been looking into in various places around Europe, was the first autobiography written in the Albanian language, of a family from Shkodra, which is why he called on young Albanian historians to find the time to thoroughly study this document.
When asked about how he found out about Albania and the reason why he fell in love with the Balkans, Noel Malcom said that it was a book he read during his years as a student. Subsequently, he decided to start spending his summers in the beautiful natures of the Balkans as well as start learning the languages of each country, including Albanian.
In regards to the topic of rewriting Albanian History, Malcom said that at this point, it is crucial to conduct more in-depth studies into the various important archives around Europe, because according to him, no history book can be the last one, because for citizens, what’s best, is to look at facts for what they really are, as that is the only way to truly grasp a particular period of time in history.
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